Public utilities provide electric, gas, water or telephone service to customers in a specified area. Utilities have a duty to provide safe and adequate service on reasonable terms to anyone who lives within the service area on without discriminating between customers. Because most utilities operate in near monopolistic conditions, they can be heavily regulated by local, state, and federal authorities. Generally, the local and state agencies are called Public Service Commissions (PSC) or Public Utility Commissions (PUC). Municipal Utilities and Rural Electric Cooperatives may be unregulated though.
Salado is a village in Bell County, Texas, United States. Salado was incorporated in 2003, before which point it was a census-designated place (CDP). The population of the CDP was 3,475 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town is home to the Stagecoach Inn, the oldest continuously running hotel in Texas. George Washington Baines, a prominent Baptist clergyman in three states and the maternal great-grandfather of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, lived in Salado in his last years. Baines' home is a national historic landmark.